Monthly Archives: March 2015

I’m writing from Sydney, a city that is one of the world’s richest in material terms and yet most impoverished in its political debate. The press has been filled with talk of a possible third party-room overthrow of an elected prime minister in the last five years. The governing Liberal-National Coalition has been considering removing its parliamentary leader, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a public relations move made by the previous Labor government when it removed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2010, then reinstated him in 2013. Continue reading →

Even though the 2015 Cricket World Cup is just now moving into the quarter-finals, it has already served as a stage to the biggest sporting event in history: to wit, the India vs Pakistan match played at South Australia’s Adelaide Oval.

Most Westerners assume the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup are the world’s biggest sports fixtures. Yet the last India vs Pakistan Cricket World Cup game, played in 2011, was watched by an estimated 988 million people. The audience figure eclipsed that of both the 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony and the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final (figures for the 2014 Final have not yet been released). Continue reading →

ImportantCool correspondent Ray Grenfell reports from the frontline of the struggle against the ongoing dispossession of Australia’s indigenous peoples.

The drone of industry and “development,” machines heaving dead yellow sand from one place to another in syncopated beeps, echoes across the river. On this side of the river, I have come to speak to a group of people who may soon be evicted for protesting the closure of communities and providing a refuge. Continue reading →

Many of the claims in this article may seem incredible, particularly to readers unfamiliar with American police. We assure you, it’s all true. Click here to see the attached Artefact containing supporting documentation for each segment of this piece.

One

Now, you’re at a crime scene. You talk to the witnesses – glimpses of a man dressed all in black, fast on a bicycle. You think to yourself, it could have been worse. The attacker could have lit the match before he fled. Six months ago, three teenagers beat two homeless men to death for fun. They beat them with bricks until the bodies were unrecognizable. The teenagers bragged to the police that they were responsible for 50 other attacks before they were caught.Continue reading →

ImportantCool is a project being undertaken by some 30 odd people around the world to fundamentally change the way the media industry works. We don’t just want to change which or what kind of stories get told. We want to change the methodology and conditions by and under which they are told, making the media itself freer and more diverse, as well as more transparent and accountable. We’re building a democratic and radically transparent media organization of global scale which we hope will set a new world’s-best standard for how news-media is made. It’s early days, and we’re only just beginning to put our ideas, partially, into action. Even the minor progress we’ve made so far has come at a seemingly ridiculous cost in terms of time and effort. Some of us have been working on this project since early 2013. But we have faith in our ideas, and in our ability to use them to reshape the media industry, which is undergoing simultaneously a crisis and a renaissance, both of unprecedented scale. We believe that if we can change the media in the way we envision, we can also change the world. We’re certain that to do either, we need passionate, intelligent, and engaged people on board. We’re hoping that’s you. We’ve been surprised by the level of support so far, having raised enough to cover web-hosting, legal, and accounting costs, before even engaging in our first fundraising drive, which is imminent. As I write this I am told that someone else has come on-board. Obviously, however, we’re hoping that these early patrons are the first of many. That’s an even bigger ask than it sounds, as we need more from these patrons than just their money. More on that topic later. Continue reading →